The first children's radio bridge between Namibia and Germany raises the international attention of governments and of civil society
Windhoek/Berlin, May 22th 2009
With yet another innovative project and a whole series of new partnerships, Radijojo World Children's Radio Network (Radijojo) is boosting its engagement on the African continent: Radijojo has successfully implemented the first radio bridge of children in Germany and Namibia. Some of the content in 60 minutes segments produced for kids by kids included culture, school life as well as the colonial history:
Marginalized children from migrant families in the African quarter of Berlin did some research on a street named after the German colonialist named Luederitz. They found out about the unjust ways in which Luederitz had seized Namibian land and then the students discussed their findings with the district mayor of the Center of Berlin, Dr. Hanke. He agreed with them that the street should be renamed.
Nevertheless, this process has not yet lead to a political decision, but the kids symbolically renamed the street themselves with a self-painted street sign made out of paper where they transformed it from „Luederitz Street“ into „NAMIBIA STREET“!
To make this a real bilateral children's radio project, Radijojo staged the first direct call-in phone session through the Internet between German and Namibian children ever organized.
Radijojo did happen to find an excellent partner in Windhoek that contributed to the project, her name is Esther and she is a young Uitani Children's Radio reporter. She did a presentation about her hometown and was also quite interested in the outcome of the Luederitz' project in Germany. Her personal contribution was very impressive too, she conducted her very own interview with Mr. Sam Nuyoma, the „father of the Namibian nation“ on the same day! She referred to Mr. Nuyoma's advice saying that she would fight anyone who would try to recolonize her country. She had a chance to display her happiness and excitement when she found out that her fellow radio kids at Uitani's Children's Radio would now be joining the World Children's Radio Network.
This week, Thomas Roehlinger, founder and chief editor of the German based non-profit-organization presented the project to the the Namibian Minister of Education, Mr.Nangolo Mbumba, as well as to the Subregional Summit of Community Media in Windhoek:
„The reaction to our work was simply excellent. More than 20 community radios, multimedia centres, schools all across Southern Africa immediately asked for cooperation – additionally to the dozens of partnerships with Africa that we have already launched. We are overwhelmed by this huge interest in joining our initiative for the kids in Africa and all over the world!“, Mr. Roehlinger said in Windhoek after talks with officials of UNESCO, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the World Association of Community Radios (AMARC) and other organizations.
As a consequence of this intense and ongoing demand, Radijojo plans to implement an African chapter to the World Children's Radio Network: RADIJOJO AFRICA.
Therefore, Radijojo is calling for international donors, governments and NGOs to support the development of RADIJOJO Africa that could be based in Windhoek or Johannesburg.
Mr Roehlinger: „A small but effective team on the ground of African kids working in radio can empower ten of thousands of kids in more than 20 African countries to share and learn regularly within this global educational platform for children by children. Please give them this chance - help us to make this vision come true! “
The output of the projects and the new partnerships will subsequently be released on our freshly redesigned global website (in the Namibia / Africa section) and on our German main site www.radijojo.de
We would like to thank the following organizations for their support: UNESCO, MISA, AMARC Africa, Foerderband, Nord-Sued-Bruecken Foundation, the City of Berlin, Base FM and Uitani Children's Radio, Windhoek and many other friends and supporters in Africa and Europe.
For further information, audio and photos inquiries please contact redaktion@radijojo.de
For proposals of projects and support, please contact troehlinger@radijojo.de
